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Optical Systems Design, Inc., USA

Describe the profound impact your technology – as part of an end-user product – has had on Society. How has the population been impacted by your technology. This could be behavioral, economical, societal, etc.
The search features of SYNOPSYS(tm) enable a user to develop a state-of-the-art optical system in a matter of minutes. Projects that required days or weeks before can now be fleshed out in less than a day.

Tell us about how your technology is unique? What makes it stand out? How do you differentiate it from other similar technologies?
Other software packages offer a "global optimization" feature, which can find a solution if you let it run long enough. Instead of examining 200,000 cases -- as other program often do -- SYNOPSYS has a binary search option that divides the design space into logical units and quickly evaluates where the best solution is to be found. The zoom-lens search, ZSEARCH(tm) can even find candidate configurations for zoom lenses. We have used it to develop a 25:1 zoom lens with excellent performance, with no starting design needed.

When first launched, did your technology make a transformational change for the end-user or was it an advancement of the prior art? Describe this.
While the prior art includes our unique PSD optimization algorithm -- which is essential owing to its greater speed -- the unique logic embodied in the Quick Mode, which deals mostly with 3rd and 5th-order correction, together with the binary search algorithm, represent a transformation in the technology.

Give a specific example of the buying chain for your product/technology once you sell it to the next level buyer. Provide an example of the succession of companies your product goes through, ultimately to get to an end-user.
Our product is a lens-design computer program. Customers include many of the major defense industries as well as private companies developing lens systems. A good example is Simax System Development BV in the Netherlands, for which we designed a 20-element microlithography objective after finding an excellent configuration with DSEARCH(tm). This was found in less than a day, with no starting point required of the user.

In which vertical market(s) would you classify the end-users of this technology?
Defense|Bio|Semiconductor

Give us your one sentence “elevator pitch” you would use to tell a non-technical person about your technology and the critical role it plays in Society.
We have new technology for quickly finding lens configurations, without requiring any starting point or patent database, that even works with zoom lenses.

Surprise Us! What else should we know about your product/technology?
While expertise in lens design never hurts, our product can be used by relative novices. We have an online tutorial showing how a beginner can design an 8X zoom lens with no prior experience. Go to www.osdoptics.com, scroll down to the Online Tutorial button, and read Lesson 35.

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